What do you consider “harsh” driving conditions for oil? And what is “easy”, in your mind?

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Dec 28, 2014
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I usually drive 500 miles a week in what I consider “easy” or “normal”, conditions. Then this weekend I noticed just how many short trips I’m doing on average - I did eight short trips on Saturday and four on Sunday. All in cold weather. And today I did my usual 60 mile commute in an hour and a half of highway driving, in temperatures in the 20’s. My speeds vary on the highway from 65-75. A few pedal to the metal situations here and there, not much stop and go traffic (Maybe only five miles total a week stuck in traffic).

Makes me wonder just how easy things are. Seems easy to me.

Would you consider that easy? I still do. By definition I’m not sure it is.

Your commute harder than this^^^
 
My wife does door dash from home and all she does is short trips very rarely does her 2017 escape with a 2.0 EB leave a 10 mile radius and she might do 10-20 deliveries a day, the next UOA will be interesting
 
My type of driving I consider hard on oil. I drove a total of around 3800 miles in all of last year and it was all stop and go around town.
 
About like this

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In my opinion, harshly used oil will see many short trips, liberal use of throttle and rpm before it comes up to temp, and most of all, neglected maintenance. (Time on oil, oil filter, pcv valve, etc)

I do not believe WOT is harsh on oil or the engine if performed when fluids are up to operating temp, and engine is kept within normal operating parameters. (RPM, temp, maintenance). Neglect is far more harsh to an engine than enjoying it.
 
I live a little under 2.5 miles form work and I do it four times a day plus grocery runs etc... are all within a couple miles. Not much I can do living in a small town. I do get it out on the highway every once in a while but with the price of gas and only putting on 2500 miles a year doing annual changes I'm not to worried about it. With my Lucerne I have never smelled gas on the dip stick but on the old Sierra TBI I do but my mech thinks I'm nuts thanks to BITOCDG.
 
Harsh conditions: numerous cold starts, short distance driving, stop and go, very high speed, racing, mountainous terrain, fully loaded vehicle, towing, very high ambient and very low ambient temperatures

Mild conditions: steady cruising at highway and freeway speeds in a no more than lightly loaded vehicle at mild ambient temperatures
 
I am retired... My commute is whatever I want it to be.......
You're a man after my own heart. My "commute" today was to Tractor Supply for propane. Then to Safeway for chicken strips and German potato salad for lunch. Then home for a foot rub after washing the dog.

While I'm exhausted from all that, I would consider the drive to be "easy" on the oil. By the time I returned home with lunch, the oil temp was up to 202 F. Hot enough for shutdown.
 
My wife does door dash from home and all she does is short trips very rarely does her 2017 escape with a 2.0 EB leave a 10 mile radius and she might do 10-20 deliveries a day, the next UOA will be interesting
She’s putting 100 miles a day on that Edge driving like that? Be interesting to see how that uoa comes out!
 
In my situation, it's mostly stop and go traffic in dusty, extreme heat conditions. The oil definitely hits operating temperature and then some, with the cooling fan in overdrive most of the time. Also has the tendency to kill alternators and batteries in short order.
 
In my situation, it's mostly stop and go traffic in dusty, extreme heat conditions. The oil definitely hits operating temperature and then some, with the cooling fan in overdrive most of the time. Also has the tendency to kill alternators and batteries in short order.
I figured heat like that wouldn‘t be bad on a battery or an alternator...battery overheat and expand? Maybe the AC always running and cooling fans are putting a stain on the charging system?
 
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